Artamid

Appearance: Slender but tough-looking magpie, with the black-and-white markings of the species. Feathers are impeccably groomed most of the time - he ruffles them when he's trying to disguise himself - and have an unusually bright purply lustre to the black bits. Eyes are jet black. Wears nothing save a silver ring about his left foot, with diamonds in it - takes this off when in disguise.

Artamid was one of some thirty or forty magpies that roosted in a pine forest on the southern border of the Land of Ice and Snow. All of the flock were thieves, and had a communal treasure - however, Artamid was a bit of a loner, and always searched for ways to become the richest on his own without sharing.

Artamid's opportunistic eye saved him from being killed when Warlady Lunarah Dawnrider decided to raid the treasure horde of the Magpie flock - he gave her all the information and directions she needed in exchange for his life and a sizable chunk of the booty. To this, Lunarah accepted - however, her crew was so disgusted by the traitorous actions of the bird that they continually ran him off, threatening to kill him. Despite this fact, Artamid continued to be Lunarah's secret spy, against the knowledge of everybeast else.

Though he was handsomely rewarded for his valuable information, and was a major factor in the success of many of Lunarah's missions, Artamid was still put out by the fact that she had more treasure than he. He schemed to get Lunarah killed by having her sail into the Highlands and attack the strong fighters of Bowlaynee Castle; which he knew, could he but arrange it, would most likely result in the near-annihilation of both armies involved. He planned originally to use Lunarah's ship as his hideout, as that was where she kept her treasure, but when the Bowlaynians discovered and looted the treasure behind Lunarah's back, he switched plans to using the castle as his own personal fortress after everybeast was dead, where he could squat on the massive treasure horde. If anybeast seemed to be in a position to mess up his plans, Artamid would manipulate Lunarah into killing them, or manipulate the creatures themselves into unwittingly setting themselves up for getting killed either by the Warlady or the goodbeasts opposing her. Artamid's scheming in this fashion was responsible for the deaths of Blunge, Greeby, and Isopo. He also was able to undermine the morale of the vermin army, and Lunarah's own madness aided in this.

When the final climactic battle against the Bowlaynians took place, Artamid watched from high in the sky as what looked like a perfect version of his plan played out. Both armies refused to surrender and were on the verge of wiping each other out when something completely unforeseen occurred - a large Bruinne, or out-of-normal-range bear, appeared on the scene, attracted by the smell of carrion and too desperately hungry to be scared off by loud noise or threats. It slew Lunarah almost at once - the vermin and goodbeasts made a stand against it, together, though many lives were lost. After it finally had died, all the vermin fled for fear of being captured by the Bowlaynians, who returned in triumph to their castle. Despite the complete failure of his plan, Artamid would not give up. He attempted, in the dead of night, to steal a ruby from a ruby-studded gong that decorated Bowlaynee Castle's walltops, to use as bait to lure another vermin band up to Bowlanyee while it was crippled from the bear's damaging it. Unfortunately for him, two snow owls spotted him without him noticing them, and they captured and ate him for dinner.